Research Interests

My research encompasses a wide range of questions centered around the fundamental problems of star and planet formation. We don't really understand how stars are produced out of much larger, diffuse, cold gas.

• What determines the masses of stars?
• Why are some stars born in dense clusters while others are relative loners?
• Why do most stars reside in binary systems, unlike the solar system?
• Are all stars formed with surrounding, rotating, flattened clouds of dust and gas - disks - as part of their formation processes?
• What are the properties of these disks?
• How does mass move within these disks?
• How is the material in disks concentrated to produce the initial seeds for planet formation?

These are central issues to a broad range of astrophysics, ranging from galaxy formation and evolution to the assemblage of terrestrial planets.

Addressing these questions and many others requires a broad-based approach. Observations are essential to test theories, particularly considering the complexity of the physics. Theoretical calculations are necessary to interpret and understand what we are observing, since the information we can derive from astronomical "remote sensing" is always limited.

My research seeks to combine both observational and theoretical efforts. To this end I use a number of observational techniques spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from X-rays to radio waves, with special use of data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, as well as many ground-based observatories. I also work on theoretical models of disks and envelopes of young stars, and am beginning an effort in numerical (magneto) hydrodynamics to study the formation of stars and the evolution of protoplanetary disks.

Links to some recent papers which illustrate my primary efforts are here.